Establishment of St Agatha’s Clayfield

Clayfield was originally part of Holy Cross Parish Wooloowin. Towards the end of 1917 Archbishop Duhig paid £1,315 for about three acres of steeply sloping land fronting Oriel Road to establish a Mass centre. The land had belonged to Mr J B Charlton whose house was at the top of the hill in Enderley Road near Crombie Street. Mr T R Hall was entrusted with the task of drawing up plans for a building that would serve first as a church, and subsequently as a school. Tenders were called and the building contract was let to Mr Ernest Taylor of Morningside. The foundation stone was placed in position by Archbishop Duhig on 11 August 1918 and the building was blessed and opened for worship on 20 September, 1918.

The Archbishop named the church after St Agatha as she was the patron saint of the 6th century church attached to the Irish College in Rome where he and his two predecessors were educated. Present at that Sunday afternoon ceremony were Father Walsh (Wooloowin), Father Jordan (Nundah), Father Gowan (Hamilton), Father Dorrington (South Brisbane), Father McKenna (Rector of St Leo’s College) Hon F McDonnell MLC and many others from the surrounding district. The new Mass centre was under the care of Father Richard Walsh and his curate who would celebrate Mass on Sundays and sometimes on weekday mornings. Sisters of St Joseph from Nundah Parish walked to Clayfield from their convent to take catechism classes for the children, most of whom attended Eagle Junction State School. From these modest beginnings the parish of St Agatha’s Clayfield grew. The community took on the challenge of major building projects over the years but always kept in mind that the heart of the parish is the communal celebration of the Eucharist, the sense of worship, fellowship and mission, not the structures rising on the hillside land.